Chicago-based Morales was not too long ago named accomplice at Outlier Ventures the place she’s going to focus on blockchain startups. Her precedence is to focus on tasks intersecting with internet-of-things, synthetic intelligence and distributed ledger applied sciences.

Morales has been a cryptocurrency investor since 2014, when she led CME Ventures, the enterprise arm of the CME Group. In a wide-ranging dialog with Blockchain Information, Morales described her ardour for the expertise, Chicago, decentralization and variety in the trade.

“You don’t have one grasp driver for a whole fleet of [autonomous] automobiles, proper? You may have automobiles which might be reliant on speaking with different automobiles, with the roads, with tolls, with electrical charging stations,” Morales mentioned. “This can be a pure use case for blockchain due to its decentralization.”

Decentralization

The idea of decentralization throws some folks off as a result of it appears new, in keeping with Morales.

“The open-source nature of the Web finally turned snug for folks to make use of,” Morales mentioned. “I see the identical factor taking place in the cryptocurrency area.”

In the case of hard-wrought guidelines on the new expertise, although, Morales mentioned it’s “heartening” to know that the Securities and Change Fee (SEC) and different regulatory our bodies are at the very least taking note of cryptocurrency and blockchain expertise relatively than shoving it into the trash. For her, training is the first step to authorities acceptance and progress.

“As we noticed with Mark Zuckerberg’s Fb testimony in entrance of the Senate, many senators are simply conscious of social media, and the social media enterprise mannequin,” Morales says. “Let’s see what they suppose once they begin to perceive extra about cryptocurrency and blockchain-driven companies.”

Chicago: A Crypto and Blockchain Capital

As self-described “bullish on Chicago,” Morales mentioned that the metropolis is rapidly turning into the place to be for cryptocurrency and blockchain corporations in the U.S. attributable to its distinctive mixture of “each monetary companies plus conventional trade, from a expertise, company and infrastructure perspective.”

Morales pointed to Coinbase, which not too long ago introduced its cryptocurrency trade platform to Chicago, for example.

“I get so optimistic about the progress and the potential of this expertise as a result of it appears so related to everybody,” Morales mentioned.

Girls in Blockchain

Morales acknowledges the reality “club-y” trade may be troublesome to interrupt into, troublesome to study the “insider communicate,” or to know all the acronyms and core ideas. Nevertheless, she feels that the obstacles to entry are smaller than they may seem, and that any individual can enter the area by educating themselves on the trade.

“In the event you nonetheless really feel like there’s a barrier, know that there are numerous different senior leaders on this area all the time trying to assist one another,” Morales mentioned. “We’re by no means opposed to anybody reaching out to say ‘Hey, how do I get extra concerned?’”

Greater than 90 p.c of the crypto area is occupied by males, a incontrovertible fact that isn’t misplaced on Morales. If something, it simply makes her extra proud to put money into female-led corporations — comparable to Digital Asset led by CEO Blythe Masters, and Filament led by CEO Allison Clift-Jennings.

“I would like ladies to know that… nobody is ever going to shut the door to you,” Morales mentioned. “There’s no door to be closed right here.”